The present invention relates to a rear vehicle-body structure of a vehicle in which a damper support portion supporting an upper end of a suspension damper is provided at a wheel house.
Conventionally, a rear vehicle-body structure of a vehicle, in which a pair of rear side frames is provided at right and left sides of a vehicle-body rear portion and a pair of wheel houses is provided at the pair of rear side frames, is known as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-1197. In this structure, a ring-shaped frame portion is constituted by an upper cross member which interconnects reinforcement portions formed at right and left damper attachment portions, right and left leg members which extend from the upper cross member to the right and left rear side frames, and a lower cross member which connects the right and left leg members and interconnects the right and left rear side frames. Thereby, the rigidity of the right and left reinforcement portions can be secured properly, and loads acting on the damper attachment portions of the right and left wheel houses can be supported properly.
Further, in a vehicle in which an opening of a back door is formed at a vehicle-body rear wall, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-69265, there is provided a pair of connecting gussets which extends in a vehicle longitudinal direction and interconnects a peripheral portion of the above-described opening of the vehicle-body rear wall and an upper portion of a rear wheel house portion, and further there is provided a reinforcing member which extends in a vehicle width direction along the rear wheel house portion and an upper face of a floor portion, and connects to upper portions of the right and left rear wheel house portions at its both ends. Herein, the connecting gussets and the reinforcing member are connected at the upper portions of the rear wheel house portions. Thereby, the torsional rigidity of the vehicle-body rear portion can be improved.
According to the above-described structure disclosed in the former patent publication, since the rigidity of the rear vehicle body is secured by using the upper cross member supporting an upper end portion of a rear parcel (rear package tray), there are problems in that this structure may be only applicable to vehicles, such as a sedan type of vehicle having the rear parcel, so that its applicability would be improperly limited, and the utility of a rear baggage room would be deteriorated by the upper cross member arranged at an upper position of the rear baggage room.
Meanwhile, according to the above-described structure disclosed in the latter patent publication, there is a problem in that this structure may be only applicable to a so-called hatch-back (rear lift gate) type of vehicle having a hatch back (rear lift gate), so that it would be difficult that the above-described structure can be properly applied to other types of vehicles, such as the sedan type of vehicle. Further, since the connecting gussets having a specified width are arranged to extend longitudinally along side wall portions of the vehicle-body rear portion, smooth loading of baggage into the rear baggage room would be hindered by the connecting gussets, so that the utility of the rear baggage room would deteriorate as well.